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Which Legion/Warband(s) possess/deploy the most Helbrutes?

So I have a little project planned that will involve a large number of Helbrutes, and am now deciding on a colour scheme to tie them together.

I've looked up the fluff (Dataslate Helbrutes, Index Chaos etc) and they mostly make isolated references to specific scenarios, sometimes naming specific legions/warbands (e.g. Crimson Slaughter, Iron Warriors). However, they don't state any particular propensity or capability of those factions that use them.

I could always come up with my own, but was just wondering what the state of the art was that I may have missed.

Thanks!

I’ve always envisioned Iron Warriors as being the machine-Heavy guys most closely linked to the Dark Mechanicus.

Dreadnoughts are pretty sweet at close quarter, city-style warfare.

I also feel like Night Lords, though typically jump-pack heavy, would enjoy unleashing insane murder robots onto an unsuspecting populace.

Most of the God specific legions are so focussed on their agendas I doubt they take much time to muck about with the Dark Mech. Alpha seem too “coordinated” to want to rely on the unpredictable nature of Helbrutes. Word Bearers would rather be possessed if critically injured, or just use daemon engines instead.

Black Legion, and more recent traitors, have the resources, relative sanity, and willingness to inter “failures” into the sarcophagi.

I’d put IW at the head of the list, with NL, BL, and Renegades as the top four.

I'd say Black Legion just because of how massive it is now compared to other Legions and Warbands.

Iron Warriors will certainly field the most dreadnoughts/helbrutes, per capita.

Black Legion would field the most overall, due to being the most numerous.

Death Guard was always famous for its vast use of Terminators and Dreadnoughts that tied in to their foot slogging approach of warfare. The DG hardly used tanks and heavy weapons, Dreadnoughts (now Helbrutes) do that job.

Don't forget the Brazen Beasts, they like to make heavy use of engines, vehicles, and other large, armored units.

Thanks all for the suggestions! They're really useful background reading.

For the Brazen Beasts, they do use lots of Daemon Engines, which appear to be distinct from Helbrutes it appears. But it's close enough I guess.

I've always thought GW should consider giving a helbrute the deamon engine keyword. it'd be no stranger then giving warp talons the deamon keyword

Isn't the Heldrake a daemon engine?

That's just a vestigial marine trapped in a machine, so would set a precedent for the hellbrute.

I believe the Helldrake is pure Daemon, isn’t it? I think the reason the Hellbrute isn’t tagged as Daemon is that there’s Marine leftovers cooking inside.

 greatbigtree wrote:
I believe the Helldrake is pure Daemon, isn’t it? I think the reason the Hellbrute isn’t tagged as Daemon is that there’s Marine leftovers cooking inside.

In its release codex it was described as having an astartes pilot that was inevitably insane, imbruing the craft with daemonic energies. The resulting daemonic forces would then enslave and absorb the pilot, leaving an organic husk buried deep in the heart of the craft, fused into the machine for eternity.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
In reference to the Heldrake in 6th codex that is.

I thought it was a posssed servator.

I surely think Iron Warriors would be the most enthusiastic users because it lets them carry really big guns. I would expect most of them to be gun heavy as a consequence. Another legion like the World Eaters would use the dual melee weapon types to wade through their enemies

Red Corsairs, from what I recall Huron has a habit of punishing subordinates by inferring them inside dreadnought sarcophagi. Plus their CT is pretty good for them.

Yeah I second the red corsairs since they do use hellbrutes as punishment. Also being red corsairs means you can draw CSMs from lots of different backgrounds.

red cosairs aren't the only chaos marine group to use dreads as punishment mind you. See the Word Bearer trilogy

For comparison, during the second siege of Hydra Cordatus, the Iron Warriors brought 42 Dreadnoughts for around 300 Chaos Space Marines, that's quite nice a ratio.